Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : District Proud of New High School but Attentive to Existing Ones : Education: The district will work to bring its older facilities up to par, although retrofitting will be more expensive.

The William S. Hart Union High School District wants its brand-spanking new high school to be the envy of all around. The district just doesn’t want its own parents to be too envious.

In designing the school, the district’s first new high school in 18 years, the district equipped it to handle the computer networking that would, for example, allow students to link up with the library from any classroom and give teachers immediate access to students’ progress reports.

“The advantage would be that the teacher would have more time to do teaching things and would not be doing paperwork things,” said Paul Priesz, principal of the new school, which will open in September.

Because the new school will initially have a smaller population, serving only ninth- and tenth-graders in its first year and expanding in subsequent years, Priesz said, students there will have more opportunities to be involved in activities such as student government and sports.

And, of course, the school would simply be newer.

While proud of the new school, district officials at the same time don’t want those attending the Santa Clarita Valley’s other three high schools to feel left out. To that end, the district has set up a technological committee to bring the existing high schools up to par with the new, as yet unnamed high school.

“We will take into account both where we are now in terms of technology and software, beyond just computers, then we will look at the equity issue to keep balance in the district,” said Assistant Supt. Dan Hanigan, who heads the committee. Hanigan said the committee in January will introduce a plan to phase in technology over the next three to five years throughout the district.

Since the new school, on the west end of Santa Clarita near the Valencia Industrial Center, is being built from scratch, the district can easily install the cables needed to implement a computer network that includes every classroom and facility, Hanigan said. Retrofitting the existing high school campuses, the oldest of which was built in 1947, will cost more and will take time.

“It’s a massive undertaking. It involves not only the dollars for the purchase of equipment, but also training” of staff and teachers, Hanigan said. “With an old school, it’s much more difficult.”

The older schools will, however, provide some benefits that their younger sibling will not, officials said.

“We’re the only school with an auditorium that can accommodate 900 to 1,000 people, and that has some advantages to students and staff and to our community,” said Laurence Strauss, principal of Hart High, the oldest high school in the district.

But Strauss also admits that there are some drawbacks to being at a 46-year-old school that serves more than 2,200 students, about 700 more students than it was designed to hold.

“We have the smallest library facility, the smallest administrative and counseling offices,” Strauss said. “Those are areas that, facility-wise, we’ve always operated in an inequitable situation.”

The district later this month will set up criteria for developing the new attendance boundaries needed when the school opens.

Changing the boundaries for schools is usually a contentious matter among parents and community members, since it sometimes involves school loyalties and family traditions.

“Some of the parents have had several kids go through one school, and it’s a change of allegiance going to a new school,” said Nancy Wolfe, co-president of Saugus High School’s parent advisory committee. “The new is an unknown.”

While Hanigan conceded that some will be upset with boundary changes, he said others will welcome it.

“There will be some that will look forward to joining in a new school with new surroundings and opportunities,” Hanigan said.

But the new boundaries, however they are drawn, probably won’t be ironclad, Hanigan said. The district will probably allow parents to choose which school in the district to send their child, to the extent that space is available for them.